There were 27 IPOs on the markets operated by the Warsaw Stock Exchange from January to 9 April 2008, including 9 IPOs on the WSE Main List and 18 IPOs on the alternative market NewConnect. The value of the IPOs was PLN 428.5 million. The shares sold in the Main List IPOs were worth PLN 359 million, and the shares sold in the NewConnect IPOs were worth PLN 69.5 million.
According to WSE projections, there will be around 70 IPOs on the WSE Main List and around 80 IPOs on NewConnect by the year’s end.
WSE Main List
Despite the downturn in the global stock markets, which also affected the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the IPO market continues to grow very dynamically. Year on year, the number and value of IPOs indicates that growth on the IPO market is not slowing down. The start of each year traditionally brought fewer IPOs in the past 5 years, with the exception of 2005 when the number of IPOs in Q1 was greater than in any other quarter of the year. However, in 2006 there were no IPOs until 9 April.
Chart 1. IPO Number and Value in 1 January – 9 April, 2004-2008
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Source: WSE
NewConnect
There were 18 IPOs worth PLN 69.5 million in the first months of the year on the NewConnect market, which was only launched 8 months ago. The value of NewConnect IPOs was over PLN 150 million in 2007 (the market opened on 30 August 2007).
The Warsaw Stock Exchange has been one of the most active IPOs markets in Europe in the past years. The WSE is a leading European market as measured by the number of IPOs. There were 36 IPOs in 2004; 35 IPOs in 2005; 38 IPOs in 2006; and a record-high 105 IPOs jointly on the WSE Main List and NewConnect in 2007. The WSE Main List was Europe’s #2 regulated market in terms of the number of IPOs in 2007, second only to the London Stock Exchange but ahead of other markets including Euronext (an alliance of 4 exchanges), OMX (an alliance of Scandinavian and Baltic exchanges), and Germany’s Deutsche Boerse.
